The bitcoin price reached $ 6,500 on Wednesday (as of 10:30 am), according to Bitstamp, the highest level in its history . The main reason for the price jump is likely to be the announcement of the US stock exchange operator Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) to start trading in Bitcoin futures in the future. Should all authorities agree, the introduction of futures contracts on the cryptocurrency should take place before the turn of the year.

Announcement of bitcoin futures pushes price of the cryptocurrency to new heights.

The planned launch of trading in Bitcoin futures prompted CME chief Terry Duffy to cite “increased customer interest in the developing cryptocurrency market”. Investors would benefit from more transparency, safe prices and fewer risks on the world’s largest regulated FX exchange, Duffy said.

Bitcoin futures facilitate trading for institutional investors

The Bitcoin futures are based on the specially developed CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate , which will reflect the trading of the largest Bitcoin exchanges and will issue a Bitcoin-US-Dollar-Price once a day. The so-called Bitcoin Real Time Index, on the other hand, should be updated faster and more frequently and contain forecasts for Bitcoin prices. Overall, the introduction of futures and options on cryptocurrencies will make Bitcoin and Co. more tradable, especially for institutional investors, as reported by Finanzen.at .

The current 1,244 crypto currencies on the Coinmarketcap platform currently have a market capitalization of $ 184 billion. Bitcoin alone as the largest cryptocurrency comes to 108 billion US dollars. In addition to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, the third largest cryptocurrency, has been able to record a huge price jump in the past few days (alone plus ten percent since Tuesday morning). However, this is likely to be due to the bumpy start of the new competing currency Bitcoin Gold .